Book: Where the Road Goes

I really liked this book. The main character, a lifelong activist, leaves her husband, children and grandchildren behind to join a year-long walk across America. Over the course of the year, the characters exchange letters telling of the events of their lives. For Tig, the walker, the challenges of living, walking, and undertaking activist work with a diverse group of people who've joined the walk with different agendas. For her family, their sadness and anger at her decision to leave them for a year and the struggle to understand the not insignificant events that unfold through the year

I like a book that is so interesting that I forget it is a fictional account. The characters become so real that I find myself cheering for them to make good decisions and sympathizing with their griefs. As the story unfolds through each letter, the depth of each character becomes apparent through what they choose to write, what they leave out, and what the others tell of them.

The whole idea of the book is somewhat refreshing. In today's instant world, I can't imagine being apart from e-mail and my cell phone, but the characters communicate almost exclusively through handwritten letters. This style of telling a story through a letter series, makes the story richer and more interesting for it embraces the perspective of the many characters rather than reflecting a single view point.

Where the Road Goes: A Novel
by Joanne Greenberg